As the Moon Rises
by LauraReynolds
Summary: A slightly AU Paily werewolf fic. Follows the show for the most part at the beginning of season three.


To put this simply, Paige had no idea what was going on. She had woken up on the forest floor with her right arm searing in pain and a fuzzy memory of how she got there.

She had just been out for an evening run on one of her usual wooded spots in Rosewood like she usually did when she needed to clear her head. Senior year was just about to start, and there were already a lot of things on Paige's mind, other than college planning and the upcoming swim season. Things specifically being Emily Fields. Paige had not talked or seen Emily since shortly after Maya's body had been found. She wanted to be there for her friend, but there were so many emotions and thoughts racing through her head about the entire situation. "situation" Paige thought, the word echoed in her head, as she sprinted through a patch of particularly dense trees. She stopped, a light film of sweat beginning to cover her strong athletic body, the word still looping in her head. "This is not a 'situation' Paige" She thought, "The girl who you love, who you don't even deserve, girlfriend was brutally murdered, and the best thing you can think of to sum up this entire fucked up chain of events is 'situation'." She shook her head, trying to push her self-loathing and Emily Fields to the back her mind. All she needed to do was to do was to push out a few more miles and then the endorphins would start to kick in, leaving her in a state of numb bliss.

Paige started to pick up her pace again, admiring the scenery around her as she raced through the forest path. The sun was almost completely set, the last bits of orange light bled through the trees, setting the tall pine and fir trees around her in a soft orange fire. She closed her eyes; the last flicker of sunlight grazed her face, lightly heating her features. She then breathed in the deep sent of crushed pine needles and fir trees, which soothed and calmed her frazzled mind. Paige slowly lost herself into the repetitive crunch of her footsteps on the forest floor. She was finally starting to feel the coming on of runners high. As, she started to relax into her groove, Paige noticed something curious off to her right hand side, not more than one hundred feet off of the path. As she glanced over, Paige saw a large dark mass, which she couldn't make out due to the encroaching darkness that began to consume the woods. "Probably a deer, you think you can outrace me bambi?" she muttered to herself, and picked up her pace along the now darkened path.

After that, everything went black.

Paige was still trying to regain all of her senses, her head still ringing; she immediately felt a searing pain flash over her right arm. Crying out like a wounded animal, Paige instinctively clutched her bare right arm. As she gritted her teeth through the pain, Paige noticed that her shoulder had been shredded into ribbons, and was profusely bleeding, freely spilling over her left hand as she attempted to stop the bleeding. "Fuck!" Paige yelled out through clenched teeth. She had to do something fast, or else she was in danger of passing out. She decided to remove the white wife beater that she was wearing and tie off her shoulder. Again, Paige was in agony as she tightened the now bloody shirt around her arm. Paige finished the knot, and shakily got to her feet, leaning against a nearby pine tree. "Think Paige, think." She said, in a wavered voice. "My phone!" In the dizzy panicked state that Paige found herself in, she had forgot almost entirely that she had brought her phone with her on the advice of her dad who had always worried about her safety when she ran at night. Her body going into overdrive, Paige manically searched her around her environment in attempt to find her mobile. After, a few minutes of searching, Paige found it lying next to a grouping of rocks not to far from where she had woken up. She bed down painfully and picked up her phone. The screen was badly cracked, but other than that appeared to be fully functional. Paige flipped her phone open. She was shocked when she noticed the time, "10:45?! I've been passed out for two hours?" The next thing she noticed was the five missed calls from her dad, who was no doubt freaking out at the moment. Paige silently swore to herself, put her phone onto her pocket, trying to now figure out how far away from the path she was.

Paige knew she had to act fast and find the path soon. Light headed with her arm still throbbing, Paige gradually started wondering in what direction she assumed to be closest to the trail. The problem for Paige was, other than her current state, the woods became a totally different animal once the sun had set. The once familiar forest had become strange and foreign to her now that the night had overtaken. After around ten minutes of blindly stumbling around, Paige, shocked at her innate sense of direction, had found herself back on the forest path. Paige smiled through the blackness, at the sheer dumb luck that she had chosen the right direction, and was now one step closer from leaving.

As she continued to wander down the path, Paige was suddenly overcome with even more excruciating pain in her right arm. She screamed out in agony, into the night, and crumpled to her knees. She attempted to steady her breathing, but the pain only intensified. With tears rolling down her dirtied face, Paige cried out again, her vision starting to tunnel.

In the background as Paige started to fall face first into dirt and pine needless, she heard something stirring around her. Her stomach immediately dropped, something was moving fast, and getting closer to her by the second.


End file.
